Minden, Louisiana

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Minden
Minden, Louisiana
Minden
Minden
Location in Louisiana
Basic data
Foundation : 1836
State : United States
State : Louisiana
Parish : Webster Parish
Coordinates : 32 ° 37 ′  N , 93 ° 17 ′  W Coordinates: 32 ° 37 ′  N , 93 ° 17 ′  W
Time zone : Central ( UTC − 6 / −5 )
Residents : 13,082 (as of 2010)
Population density : 422 inhabitants per km 2
Area : 31.1 km 2  (approx. 12 mi 2 ) of
which 31 km 2  (approx. 12 mi 2 ) is land
Height : 77 m
Postal code : 71055
Area code : +1 318
FIPS : 22-50885
GNIS ID : 2404271
Website : www.mindenusa.com

Minden is a city and parish seat of Webster Parish in the US state of Louisiana . Around 13,000 people live in an area of ​​over 31 square kilometers.

Minden is part of the Ark-La-Tex socio-economic region , which includes parts of the four states of Arkansas , Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas .

geography

Minden is located in the northwest of the state of Louisiana, about 40 kilometers from the northern border with Arkansas and 70 kilometers from the western border with Texas. To the southwest of the city is Lake Bistineau , which stretches for more than 30 kilometers southwest.

Neighboring cities of Minden include Haughton (17 km southwest), Gibsland (18 km southeast), Homer (22 km northeast), Shreveport (25 km west) and Arcadia (30 km southeast).

history

The area around Minden was first settled by Newitt Drew, who built a flour mill and a sawmill south of today's town. Minden itself was founded in 1836 by Charles Veeder from Schenectady , New York . He named the city after the German city of Minden . Veeder left town during the California Gold Rush and lived in Bakersfield , California from then on . Years before the city was founded, a Germantown , i.e. a coexistence of emigrated Germans, established itself in this area , which had the longest history of all comparable towns. It was built on the same latitude as Jerusalem . This settlement has been preserved and is now part of the Germantown Colony and Museum .

During the American Civil War there was a field camp east of Minden that at times housed up to 15,000 soldiers. At that time the city served as a supply warehouse. About 30 soldiers killed in the Battle of Mansfield are buried in the historic Minden Cemetory , which was built before 1843. Governor Henry Watkins Allen tried to establish self-sufficiency in the city and state during the war. So Minden got a cotton factory. In 1864 officer Camille Armand Jules Marie de Polignac set up winter quarters near Minden.

William L. Life was born in 1887. From 1925 on he ran the Webb Hardware store in Minden's city center for almost 50 years and is considered the Father of modern Minden because of his numerous urban activities and services .

On February 13, 1893, Minden recorded the coldest temperature ever recorded in Louisiana: −27 ° C. The same temperature was measured again during the Great Snowstorm of 1899 , in other states it even fell below −50 ° C.

During the Great Depression between 1928 and 1930, one of the city's two banks went bankrupt. On May 1, 1933, a tornado destroyed around 20% of the city's residential development. Shortly thereafter, a large fire raged in the city area, which again destroyed many houses as well as large parts of the city center and industrial areas. In the summer, a flood inundated around a third of Minden's grain areas. The year 1933 was then referred to as the Year of Disaster in Minden.

In 1946, a racially motivated lynching caused cover-ups across Parish involving the city police, the sheriff's department, the coroner and numerous city citizens.

traffic

US Highway 79 runs from west to east of the city , and US Highway 80 branches off from the city center to the southeast . US Highway 371 runs west and southwest of the city . In addition, Interstate 20 runs along the southern city limits , which runs from Fort Worth in Texas to Florence in South Carolina .

economy

The Coca-Cola distribution center

Minden has a large number of different companies and businesses as well as its own chamber of commerce . In addition, there was a bottling plant for the beverage manufacturer The Coca-Cola Company in Minden for a long time , and a distribution center is still in operation today.

Demographics

The 2000 census showed a population of 13,027 people, spread over 5166 households and 3430 families. The population density is 423 people per square kilometer. 52.2% of the population are blacks, 46.3% white, 0.6% Hispanics or Latin Americans, 0.3% Native Americans, 0.3% Asians and less than 0.1% Pacific islanders. 0.2% came from a different ethnicity, 0.7% had two or more ethnicities. The median age was 37 and the per capita income was more than 14,000 US dollars, which meant that more than a quarter of the city's population lived below the poverty line.

Until the 2010 census , the population rose slightly to 13,082.

Personalities

sons and daughters of the town

Personalities related to the city

  • W. Jasper Blackburn (1820–1899) lived in Minden for ten years. He founded the Minden Herold newspaper and was mayor of the city for four years from 1855.
  • Gene Austin (1900–1972) spent his childhood in Minden. He was a singer and one of the most successful artists of the 1920s and 1930s.
  • Hank Williams (1923–1953) married in Minden. He was a country singer and is considered one of the most important singers in this genre.
  • Alan LaVern Bean (1932–2018) lived in Minden as a child and adolescent. He was an astronaut and the fourth person on the moon.
  • Jerry Huckaby (* 1941) attended high school in Minden for four years in 1959. He is a politician and was a member of the United States House of Representatives.
  • John C. Fleming (* 1951) lives with his family in Minden. He is a politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives .

Web links

Commons : Minden, Louisiana  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files